Linden Park Gatepiers and Gates, Cavers, Scottish Borders

Description

Built in 1885, a pair of stone gatepiers with two decorative iron gatepiers, and pairs of wide gates and pedestrian gates between them. The structures were built as the main entrance gateway to the former Linden Park Estate and are set back from the A698 road northeast of Hawick. It is likely they were designed by the architect of the house and estate ancillaries, John Guthrie.

The paired stone gatepiers are rounded pillars built in smooth ashlar supported on squared base plinths. The pillars have corner angles at the base and finely tooled corbels to the squared top sections, all cut out of a single piece of stone. Their large overhanging pyramidal caps have a tooled cornice and round ball finials which support small decorative iron details (former electric light fittings).

The pair of squared hollow iron gatepiers are built in metal strip bars with rivets and a coronet style cap with finial. Tall hand-crafted reed stalks with leaves and flowerhead details are set within the pillars. Both the central gates and the smaller side gates are made of circular vertical bars linked by flat horizontal bars. There are double the number of spacing bars with ball ends to the lower level and round arched details encasing thistle motifs at the top.

Legal exclusions

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the stone quadrant walls.

Historical development

The low coursed rubble stone quadrant walls were built at the same time as the gates and gatepiers and are attached to the gate piers with a linking cope detail. The quadrant walls are simple in design and have been altered by the removal of the former railings which ran their full length.

Linden Park was designed in 1885 by the Hawick based architect John Guthrie (1833-1903) for mill owner Walter Laing (1820-1895). Laing was the senior partner in hosiery firm Dicksons and Laing Ltd of Wilton Mills, Hawick which was the main employer in the town in the 1870s with 600 workers. The Hawick Paper (2018) records the estate included the main house, stable block, gate lodge and gardens and cost £20,000 to build. This was a considerable expense at the time, and the estate also employed four servants and a coachman.

Linden Park Estate is first shown on the 2^nd edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1897, published 1899). The map shows a large house with the gate lodge, a walled garden and a stable courtyard building. The presence of entrance gates is indicated on this map by a line with curved quadrants to the west of the gate lodge. A late 19^th century photograph shows the house overlooking its extensive and elaborate Japanese inspired designed gardens. They included a walled garden with glasshouses, a large lawn, and woodland walks. The Trow Burn which ran through the estate was dammed to create an ornamental pond with oriental style boat house, bridges and mini pagodas. The burn also powered a turbine generator to supply the house with electricity, and it was one of the first private houses in the area to install it. The small turbine house was built in rubble with a conical roof and it remains in situ on low ground 100m southeast of the gates. Information from an owner suggests the internal gearing was running around 2016.

It is understood the gates were built in 1885 at the same time as the house and gate lodge and its associated quadrant walls. The gates were a bespoke design by Guthrie as part of the overall estate design and they were made by employed workers at Laing's Wilton Mills. When they were built the stone gate posts featured electric lighting powered by the turbine. The glass lantern spheres shown in an early 20^th century photograph (provided by the proposer) have since been removed but some of the decorative metal elements still survive on top of the piers. The full set of railings around the quadrant walls shown in the photograph have been removed.

The Dictionary of Scottish Architects records local architect J.P. Alison carried out additions to Linden Park in January 1896, and drawings show the addition as a billiard room and library wing with a veranda on the west of the house. Linden Park was untenanted from 1908 until 1920 when it was sold to Mr and Mrs Harry Smith, mill owners from Leeds. In May 1921 a deliberate fire burnt the house to a shell and a drawing by J.P. Alison dated August that year recorded the plan form at the time of the fire. In 1942 the estate was bought by the McGivern family. The quadrant wall railings are likely to have been removed during the Second World War as part of war effort iron requisition. Information provided by the proposer (2020) suggests that the gates were saved when estate trees were offered in their place.

In 1955 the McGivern family built a bungalow on the site of the former house and housing plots were sold at different periods in the later 20^th century. There are currently 10 dwellings on the site of the former estate including the gate lodge. The former stable block (now known as Linden Park) is accessed via a separate entrance to the north. Most of the decorative former gardens have been lost.

Copies of Guthrie's original plans were in the possession of local blacksmiths Telfer of Mansfield and used as reference as they carried out repairs to the ironwork at various points between 1960 and 2000. The stone quadrant walls and gatepiers, and the square section iron gatepiers and two pairs of gates survive in their original (later 19th century) setting with the gate lodge located to the east.

Statement of Interest

The Linden Park gates and gatepiers meet the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

They are bespoke, decorative gatepiers and gates built as part of a high-quality design scheme for a small country house estate.

The organic, floriate Arts and Crafts design is an early example of this style of ironwork in Scotland.

They are an early example of gateway designed with electric lighting.

They are largely in their original form and retain their immediate, later 19^th century setting.

The gates help inform our understanding of a small country house estate with an association with the textile industry.

Design

The bespoke stone gatepiers and iron gatepiers and gates at Linden Park were likely created by the architect John Guthrie (1833-1903), who designed the estate house ancillary buildings. Guthrie was a prominent local Hawick architect who carried out contracts for Wilton Mills and streets of terraced housing for the Hawick Working Men's Building & Investment Company. He was a founding member of Hawick Archaeological Society and later served as its President.

Historic photographs show the high-quality design of the former Linden Park House and a correspondingly high level of detailing was carried over into the other estate buildings including the gatepiers and gates. Guthrie built three other large villas in Hawick town in the 1880s, however none of which appeared to have such elaborate gates or entrances.

Many iron gates associated with estate houses from the period were simpler in design, often stock designs from catalogues, and hung on plain stone piers. While some elements, such as the vertical bars, are familiar elements of estate railings and gates of thelater 19^th century, the addition of hand-made, organically shaped, three-dimensional foliate decoration is unusual for the period. The use of such naturalistic decoration was characteristic of the Arts and Crafts movement (which celebrated individual design and craftsmanship, developing as a reaction against the what was seen as the negative effect of the industrial revolution on the decorative arts) and was not commonly seen in ironwork in Scotland until the early 20^th century. There are few known examples of iron gates featuring this type of decoration dating from the later 19^th century. The majority of examples date from the early 20^th century period and a small number of these are listed.

The metal worker Thomas Hadden further developed organic natural shapes in his designs when he began his business almost 20 years after the Linden Park gates were installed. Examples of Hadden's designs are the category A listed Colinton Village Gates of 1924 (LB49552), which are listed independently from the house they served, and the category B listed Busby Glen Park gates in Clarkston (LB48324) of 1925. While these later examples demonstrate a refined use of natural motifs in ironwork, the Linden Park gates present a vernacular interpretation (involving what appears to be the adaption of estate railings with the addition of three-dimensional flower motifs) which is significant as an early exploration of an Arts and Crafts style, which came to prominence in architecture and design from the 1890s onwards.

As well showing influence of early Arts and Crafts style the design of the Linden Park gates and the wider former estate, with its Japanese gardens and oriental style structures, also reflects the ideas of the concurrent Aesthetic Movement (1860 – 1900). This movement, which aimed to combat the perceived ugliness and materialism of the Industrial Age by producing art and objects that were beautiful, took inspiration from a range of cultures and periods including Renaissance painting and East Asian art and design. The unusual, highly decorative gates are an example of how followers of the movement sought to embrace all things 'Artistic' in their home environments.

The design of the stone gatepiers is also notable because they include well-crafted chamfered details and unusually broad capitals. They formally supported decorative iron and glass light fittings which were an early example of their type. While parts of light fittings have been removed, both the stone and iron gatepiers remain largely in their later 19^th century form. There has only been a small level of alteration to the group and the majority of the decorative ironwork is retained.

The high-quality bespoke design as part of the estate, and the fact that the group remains largely in their original form, is of special interest.

Setting

The gates were built to mark the entrance of the Linden Park Estate and are set close to the A698 road, a short distance northeast of Hawick.

Linden Park Estate was laid out in the 1880s with extensive Japanese inspired designed gardens featuring oriental style structures. While much of this wider setting of this estate, including the former mansion house, gardens and other features to the southwest of the gates, has since been lost it contributes to our understanding of the historic context of the entrance gates. The development of an oriental style estate landscape by industrialist Walter Laing in the 1880s demonstrates the interest of the owner in the fashionable and intellectual Aesthetic Movement of the period (see Design section). Within this context, the organically decorated, handcrafted Linden Park gates at public facing entrance to this landscape functioned to promote the modern and cultured 'Artistic' interests of the owner to all those who passed by.

The immediate setting of the stone gatepiers, iron gatepiers and gates located next to the associated gate lodge is largely unaltered since the later 19^th century and this adds to their interest in listing terms. The survival of this group of entrance structures helps us to understand the function of the estate and its prosperity, as well as the interests of its owner, in the later 19^th century.

Historic interest

Age and rarity

Decorative iron gates were installed to mark the entrances to country estates and larger houses across rural areas in Scotland from the early 19^th century to the earlier 20^th century and they are therefore not a rare type of structure.

Most decorative ironwork was purchased from catalogues, such as Walter McFarlane and Son in Glasgow, which offered many design choices in varying levels of detail. Individually designed ironwork was mostly found in much larger estates such as the large Manderston House Estate in Berwickshire. The Linden Park gates are therefore unusual and rare as bespoke architect designed gates for relatively small estate.

Many estates were abandoned or demolished in the earlier 20^th century because of inheritance tax reasons with the loss of ancillary buildings and structures. A large amount of decorative ironwork was also lost in Scotland as part of the war effort. The gates therefore have interest as a good surviving example of their type in the area.

The Linden Park gates and gatepiers are a rare example of a high-quality bespoke design for gates in the later 19^th century that remain largely in their current form. Although the organic design may have involved the adaption of typical estate railings the result is an early example of gates which show the emergence of handcrafted bespoke design and foretelling the Arts and Crafts movement which in the 1880s was still in its early development.

Social historical interest

Historically estate gateways were an outward advertisement of the status and identity of the owner. At Linden Park the early use of new styles (organic ironwork decoration) and technologies (electric lighting) in the design is significant as it shows the ambitions and local importance of the industrialist owner of the estate in the later 19^th century.

The gates have social interest as one of the remaining ancillary components of a small yet significant later 19^th and early 20th century country house estate commissioned by a prominent figure in the local textile industry.

Association with people or events of national importance

There is no association with a person or event of national importance.

External Links

Historic Environment Scotland Listing

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